There are many situations wherein it is desired to produce diagnostic image information with respect to a subject by means of any of a variety of electronic apparatuses, and for then making the results of these diagnostic tests promptly available to a person who is not present at the diagnosis site. This can be true not just for analyzing certain results, but also when there are questions or concerns about the quality of an image acquired on a system. If an imaging system is exhibiting an image quality problem, it is necessary and desirable to correct the problem as quickly as possible, so that the problem extends to as few scans as possible.
In reviewing and/or correcting image quality problems, the user may need to request assistance from a remote source. In order to analyze and correct the problem, the remote source will usually require the data files associated with the problem period. However, imaging systems typically have temporary files. That is, all data associated with a certain scan or period of time, is deleted at some point, often before a service technician can be on site to access the data to help in troubleshooting image quality issues. Therefore, all data associated with a "problem" time is often lost before it can be retrieved and analyzed.
Currently, when magnetic imaging customers have questions or concerns about the quality of an image acquired on their system, they must request assistance from a Support Center. A Support Center engineer must then connect to that system and pull not only the image(s) in question for retrieval and analysis, but particularly the data files (error logs, scan protocols, crash files, raw data files, etc.), for retrieval and analysis at the Support Center. This process requires the engineer and the system operator, necessarily at separate locations (and, often, in separate time zones), to be available concurrently. Furthermore, this requires concurrent availability within a very immediate time frame, to prevent the loss of temporary files. Obviously, this may inconvenience the operator, requiring him or her to interrupt the scanning schedule to contact the Support Center, as well as possibly requiring availability of the engineer at an inconvenient time.
It is seen, therefore, that it would be desirable to provide a new and useful system and method for saving and transmitting to a remote site diagnostic information, system and data files, and images generated by an imaging modality at a subject-testing site.